Asherons Call: September Teaser - Part III

[B]September 10, 2002[/b]
[P]Part 3
[P]
Ciandra heard the stirrings in the next room and pulled back her covers. The desert should have been very warm this time of year, searing the sand and making comfort while sleeping a difficulty, but this was no ordinary year. The wind whipped outside, and through a broken slit in her window, she could see the flame creatures dancing around a small prismatic stone with their acidic, lightning, and frost brethren. Nearly one full cycle of the moons had passed, and still there was no reprieve. Asheron and Martine had successfully divined the location of three of the four crystals that siphoned power directly to Gaerlan's floating fortress. The people had dispatched them, but to no avail. The Elementals clung to the ground as though the very essence of the world was creating them.
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A soft whisper-hiss snapped her out of her deep thoughts. There was very little light in her hovel as the desert tended to swallow the moonlight. She made her way to her landing using only the wan glow cast by the forces of Elementals outside. She peeked over the banister to where her houseguest slept below.
[P]
Nuhmudira had asked that Ciandra not let anyone know she was free, and though Ciandra had been hesitant to oblige, she obeyed. Nuhmudira had moved into Ciandra's home and used the downstairs as a study and bedroom. Her youth and beauty had been stolen from her while she'd been a prisoner in the place of forgetting, but she had regained her knowledge and her power. Ciandra looked down on her now. . . and stifled a cry.
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Nuhmudira looked up and saw her. She smiled, and in the orange glow cast by the Elemental invaders, the smile looked like that of a madman. She lowered her head and placed a hand on her guest, a seven-foot tall Chomu Sclavus that had come with a delivery. Nuhmudira beckoned to Ciandra as she stroked the crown of the Chomu.
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Ciandra staggered back from the banister and looked about her room. She grabbed a sash and tied it about her waist, pulling her nightshirt tight, then slipped her wand beneath the sash. She trusted Nuhmudira still, but there was a Sclavus in her home, a development that she would never have expected. As she made her way down the stairs, she listened to Nuhmudira's words, barely audible over the sound of the wind outside. They were not Roulean, nor were they any Gharu'ndim dialect. As Ciandra reached the bottom stair, twenty snake-like forms turned to face her in the darkness. She shrank back in shock.
[P]
"Worry not, child," Nuhmudira stated very calmly. "They are my servants. It seems that my meddling with the Book--" Nuhmudira broke off when she said the word and gently patted the item the Sclavus had brought to her. So long had this Book absorbed her studies, driving her to commit atrocities and wonders far beyond comprehension. It had been both a boon and bane for the Arcanum. The members of the Arcanum had thought the Book forever lost when Nuhmudira disappeared, yet here it was again, returned to her by the Sclavus. Nuhmudira looked back up from the Book and continued, "My meddling with the Book has awakened something within them. They were my saviors in that hellish place. They have simply come to return my belongings to me."
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The old woman smiled again and Ciandra felt her muscles relax. The Sclavus bowed to Nuhmudira, and then to Ciandra, and backed out of the building into the desert night.
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"Come, child. You must have many questions. And I have a tale to tell."
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[B]***** [/b]
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Antius watched as the High Queen approached. Several of her guard had come to Yanshi over the past few days and told him that she would soon arrive, and they had helped the devastated town wherever they could. But he conferred more often with the light being that was sent from Asheron. It was quizzical, highly evolved, and incredibly intelligent. Antius was sometimes at a loss for the deductions that it was able to make.
[P]
Their study had been slow; Golems had to remove the rubble from the entranceway of what was once the Elemental Sanctum, as they could not gather information until they were within. He pondered what he might say to the High Queen upon her arrival. Asheron's Emissary knelt as she approached, but Antius did not. He forced himself to remain standing, remembering how much she hated the fineries of being Queen. His effort was marked by a knowing look on Elysa's face.
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"Antius, I assume you know why I am here?" she asked.
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"Yes, Elysa, but. . . there have been some complications." He paused, searching her face for signs of disappointment. He was met only with a look of patience. "The explosion and release of raw mana destroyed the entirety of the Sanctum below us. Golems are below now removing the rubble, but there can be no determinations made until we have access into the lower levels. We know the chambers are there because the floors sound hollow, but--"
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He stopped and looked behind the Queen as a force of men and women wearing the colors of the royal guard and bearing her standard marched into the city. Elysa cleared her throat to get Antius back to his story.
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"We have yet to find a way into the lower levels," he continued. "We have, however, heard the sounds of something speaking, as if waking from a slumber, and there have been minor quakes in the earth."
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Elysa nodded. She looked back to her forces and called out to them.
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"We need to assist Scholar Blackmoor. There is a subterranean lair below what used to be the Sanctum where Gaerlan worked his magic to destroy this town. We'll be assisting Asheron's Golems in removing the debris to facilitate further study of this area."
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The ground shook violently, causing some to lose their footing. Elysa remained a pillar of calm, and when the tremor ended she turned to Antius.
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"Any guesses?"
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"Something that was never meant to be. Something that the Aun Tumeroks fear is more powerful than the Olthoi." He shook his head. "If you are asking me for an educated guess, Elysa, I cannot give you one. Too much speculation and fear is running through my mind at the moment, but. . ." He paused and leaned toward the High Queen. "I think that there is something down there, growing and giving itself the very magic of this world. I don't think that it can be stopped, and I worry that if it succeeds in weakening magic any more than it already has, something worse than the Hopeslayer could be released."
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Elysa met his eyes for a long moment and then nodded. She turned back to her force and motioned them into action. They descended into the pit and began assisting the Golems beneath the charred landscape of Yanshi.
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To be continued. . .